ABSTRACT
A speech act is an action which is performed when a word is uttered. Speech act theory is derived from the work of British philosopher J.L. Austin (1911-60), and has been taken up subsequently by philosophers, linguists, literary theorists and even psychologists. Austin distinguishes between different classes of word which perform different functions. Thus, he holds that the activity of uttering words is a complex matter which can in turn be analysed in terms of the individual functions of various types of word. Austin’s analysis concentrates on everyday language, which is used in as direct and literal a manner as possible. In outlining his theory, Austin was resisting the view of language
(put forward by, for example, exponents of positivism) which held that all meaningful sentences or propositions which declare something are descriptions of states of affairs (‘constatives’) and hence either true or false. Austin’s point is that some parts of language express meanings which may be neither true nor false. These Austin terms ‘performative utterances’. Performatives are those utterances with which people do things like make promises, warn others, make declarations, etc. (e.g. ‘I promise I will give you the money’, ‘Look out!’, ‘I name this ship . . .’). Performatives do not pertain to truth conditions, but are conventional (i.e. they are either appropriate or inappropriate). However, Austin does not rest content with the constative/performative distinction. Instead he complicates the distinction by attempting to show that there is a sense in which constatives can pertain to a performative status, and vice versa. On this model, all utterances are susceptible to being described as speech acts in so far as any fact-stating utterance can be rephrased in the form ‘I hereby assert that . . . ’ (i.e. all language use can be viewed as speech acts). John Searle has developed Austin’s theories by attempting to sti-
pulate the particular rules specific to different forms of speech act. On this view, a promise can be characterised as necessarily involving some form or other of future action; additionally, it must be about something that the person promising would not do in any case, and must involve consideration of the intentions of the promiser, who is undertaking to be bound by that promise. Prominent amongst those who have been influenced by speech act theory is German philosopher and critical theorist Ju¨rgen Habermas, who has turned to the notion of performativity as a means of elucidating his theory of ‘communicative action’. The notion of speech acts is significant not least because it offers an approach to issues concerning meaning
which can be contrasted with those theories that draw upon the heritage of structuralism (i.e. post-structuralism). This may explain its appeal to Habermas who, against thinkers such as Lyotard, has used the notion of perfomativity to argue that a normative model of communal consensus is fundamental to both the functioning, and the reproduction, of the conditions necessary for human existence.
